Due to the favourable trend in reducing the number of new COVID infections over the past six weeks and based on EU criteria, Istria has entered the orange zone and will insist on being awarded special status, the county civil protection authority said on Wednesday.

“Observing the trend, particularly in the past two weeks, the incidence of new infections in Istria County has fallen to below 100 people per 100,000 inhabitants. Based on EU criteria, Istria has thus entered the orange zone in terms of the number of COVID cases,” said the director of the county public health institute, Aleksandar Stojanović.

He added that the hospital system is stable and currently there are 30 hospitalised patients in Pula General Hospital, compared with 80 COVID patients at the end of December.

“At the moment the process of vaccination is extremely important, but unfortunately it has slowed down. About 2,400 people have been vaccinated in Istria and about 500 have received a second dose. This week, we did not receive any new doses and we expect 1,170 more next week. However, people waiting for a second shot will certainly receive it because doses for that purpose have been secured,” added Stojanović.

Kozlevac: Gyms, fitness centres, coffee to go…

The head of the Istria County civil protection authority, Dino Kozlevac, said that Istria calls for the opening of gyms, fitness and recreational centres and for outdoor sports to be allowed as of Monday as well as for cafes to be allowed to serve coffee to go. Asked when cafes and hospitality venues would be allowed to reopen, Kozlevac underlined that he supports the initiative by the hospitality sector, but added that restrictions would be gradually relaxed during February based on expertise, provided that the numbers continue to be favourable.

“The date being mentioned is 8 February and that is an optimistic estimate but we will see. At the moment the best thing would be for all cafes to be open at the national level because opening them only in Istria would lead to problems,” he said, adding that a decision concerning schools would be made by the end of the day or tomorrow.